A small fire started tonight in a science room at Chief Umtuch Middle School in Battle Ground. It was quickly extinguished.
At 9:20 p.m., firefighters with Clark County Fire & Rescue were dispatched to the school, at 700 N.W. Ninth St. When they arrived, they found a small fire in room 185, a science classroom, according to emergency radio traffic monitored at The Columbian.
A fire sprinkler had activated in the room, suppressing the fire and keeping it contained to the room, said Clark County Fire & Rescue Battalion Chief Tim Dawdy. The sprinkler activation triggered an alarm to summon firefighters, who finished extinguishing the fire once they arrived.
The fire is under investigation by the Clark County Fire Marshal’s Office, Dawdy said, but it appeared that a heat lamp inside an animal terrarium sparked the fire, and that flames spread to a nearby bookshelf.
